Coffee on the Beach, Ep. 1

Photo by Jacob Grossbard

Photo by Jacob Grossbard

Last night I set my alarm for 6:45am and packed a bag with a nalgene full of water, a tea bag, ramen, a spoon, chopsticks, my stove, and a pot. I think my body was so excited that it decided to wake me up at 5:00am this morning. My stomach was growling but I was too lazy to get food at such an ungodly hour so I laid in bed curled up like a baby until my alarm went off.

At 6:45, my alarm rang and I threw on a few layers, grabbed my bag, my helmet, and my mountain bike and skirted the 5 minute ride down through Jericho trails (and stairs as I found out!). I met Jacob Grossbard, trip leader of “Coffee on the Beach”, at 7:01am.

Shortly after taking off (almost) all of my layers, more people rolled up (and some walked up… I won’t name names *eyeroll*). Using our own stoves, folks made tea and coffee. I made ramen cause why not  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. We watched Kai Schwarz struggle to filter his coffee with a paper filter and his bare hands. We judged Declan Taylor for bringing what many of us thought to be meatloaf but was really banana bread. If only covid wasn’t a thing, I could have begged him for a slice…

Gabrielle Booth and Julia Ramos Bujalil won the award for the first people to empty a fuel canister. Kudos!

We did a round of names which was helpful cause I didn’t know about half of the folks! The discussions I was in mainly involved bikes and how doing long self-propelled adventures was a thing – less because we thought it was a good idea and more because we were broke and didn’t own cars.

Additionally, a common theme was discovered about bike touring trips: kayaking, surprisingly, was often a highlight of the trip.. not the biking part (who would’ve thought)! Both Gabrielle Declan Taylor greatly enjoyed kayaking on a bike trip. I personally enjoyed my evening kayak around the navy base in Victoria on my August bike touring trip, but I have many highlights from that trip so its hard to pick. Yes, I know, I still need to write that trip report…

Other people were talking about other things. There was probably about about 15 people who showed up!

Photo by Melissa Bernstein

Photo by Melissa Bernstein

At about 8:30am, people started to make various excuses for leaving. The best one was “I have a real job” – anonymous.

Overall, it was a lovely morning and a great excuse to get my sleep schedule back on track. Think about it… on the weekend you do a big trip, Monday you sleep in, and then Tuesday you fix your sleep schedule by hanging out with some awesome VOCers at 7:00am so that the rest of the week you are acclimated to an early start… in theory. In theory, an early wake up Saturday morning for a trip won’t be so bad, right?

A slightly angled photo because I can't hold my camera level... Photo by Melissa Bernstein

A slightly angled photo because I can’t hold my camera level… Photo by Melissa Bernstein

 

“Coffee on the Beach” will be a recurring Tuesday morning VOC “trip”, at the moment led by Jacob Grossbard. Jacob plans to rent/borrow the UBC Bike Kitchen’s cargo trailer to haul the VOC’s tent for when it rains. Also, there was talk of having some educational Tuesday mornings topics including glacier self-arrest practice on the sand. Fun!!… right?! This trip is open to anyone and everyone – newbies encouraged! We meet on the rocky outcropping just east of the Jericho Sailing Center’s property. Google Maps Link

I hope to see you there!
Till next week!
- Melissa

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One Response to Coffee on the Beach, Ep. 1

  1. Declan Taylor says:

    PSA: It was neither banana bread nor meat loaf… it was carrot cake! Great sunrise though :)

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